A Prayer Sung In Latin

[ElSurMike]

There is a video on Youtube that shows the Pope entering a dark cathedral, accompanied by a large group of priests, where they proceed to light candles. Then a prayer is chanted. The prayer is in Latin and refers to God The Father as Lucifer (light bringer), and to Jesus as a flame (of the candles). I would like to know whether the prayer, which is chanted, is an ancient prayer, or a prayer of modern composition. Can anyone help me on this? And could anyone with knowledge about the origin of the prayer provide a reference, please?

 

[porthos11]

There is a video on Youtube that shows the Pope entering a dark cathedral, accompanied by a large group of priests, where they proceed to light candles. Then a prayer is chanted. The prayer is in Latin and refers to God The Father as Lucifer (light bringer), and to Jesus as a flame (of the candles). I would like to know whether the prayer, which is chanted, is an ancient prayer, or a prayer of modern composition. Can anyone help me on this? And could anyone with knowledge about the origin of the prayer provide a reference, please?

It’s the Exsultet, and it’s sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil when the church is dark.

And no, it’s not Lucifer, it’s lucifer—light bearer, morning star, and it refers to Christ, not the Father.

In most cases in the world, it’s sung in the local vernacular, e.g. English in the United States. The official English is here: usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/easter/easter-proclamation-exsultet.cfm

And despite this being Wikipedia, it does have an accurate side-by-side English/Latin: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exsultet

 

[Todd977]

The article on the “Exultet” in the Catholic Encyclopedia says it dates from as early as the 5th century but no later than the 7th century.

My hymnal (Worship: A Hymnal and Service Book for Roman Catholics, published 1998 by GIA Publications, Hymn 455) says it dates from the 4th century.

 

[ElSurMike]

Thanks for the two responses. The video I referred to promoted as luciferian the prayer, in Latin, that made reference to “lucifer”. Using the references that were given, it is obvious that there is no reason to think such a thing. And I see that “lucifer” does refer to Jesus Christ, and not God the Father, as I thought. As far as the capitalization of “lucifer” goes, it seems to be the custom to capitalize such titles, as for instance in “Lamb of God”. But, if some one does not want to capitalize the good lucifer, in order to distinguish him from the bad Lucifer, I guess that is all right.

The fellow who made the video did not research the matter enough. It’s also possible that he is not capable of intelligent research.

 

[porthos11]

Thanks for the two responses. The video I referred to promoted as luciferian the prayer, in Latin, that made reference to “lucifer”. Using the references that were given, it is obvious that there is no reason to think such a thing. And I see that “lucifer” does refer to Jesus Christ, and not God the Father, as I thought. As far as the capitalization of “lucifer” goes, it seems to be the custom to capitalize such titles, as for instance in “Lamb of God”. But, if some one does not want to capitalize the good lucifer, in order to distinguish him from the bad Lucifer, I guess that is all right.

The fellow who made the video did not research the matter enough. It’s also possible that he is not capable of intelligent research.

Not in Latin. It has different capitalization rules. The lucifer referred there is simply a common noun, and as such, is uncapitalized.

The video is a lame attempt to “prove” that Catholics are devil-worshippers, which is really a stupid allegation for anyone who has even a basic understanding of Latin.

Further, there really isn’t a solid, Biblical basis to even presume that the name of the devil before his fall was Lucifer. That comes from a badly translated rendering of Isaiah 14:12 in the King James Bible, which refers to the king of Babylon, not the devil.

And still further, there was actually Catholic bishop named Lucifer (no doubt named after the Lord himself), who had his see in Cagliari in Sardinia in the fourth century. He was a good man who was just too rigid with those who returned to the Catholic faith from Arianism.

 

[smead2942]

There is a video on Youtube that shows the Pope entering a dark cathedral, accompanied by a large group of priests, where they proceed to light candles. Then a prayer is chanted. The prayer is in Latin and refers to God The Father as Lucifer (light bringer), and to Jesus as a flame (of the candles). I would like to know whether the prayer, which is chanted, is an ancient prayer, or a prayer of modern composition. Can anyone help me on this? And could anyone with knowledge about the origin of the prayer provide a reference, please?

The Exsultet.

“Exult, let them exult, the Hosts of Heaven…”

 

[arkwright]

There is a video on Youtube that shows the Pope entering a dark cathedral, accompanied by a large group of priests, where they proceed to light candles. Then a prayer is chanted. The prayer is in Latin and refers to God The Father as Lucifer (light bringer), and to Jesus as a flame (of the candles). I would like to know whether the prayer, which is chanted, is an ancient prayer, or a prayer of modern composition. Can anyone help me on this? And could anyone with knowledge about the origin of the prayer provide a reference, please?

This is the video of that part of the Easter Vigil where the Exsultet is sung as Pope Francis presides…youtube.com/watch?v=zZH6ZI9zxHg

If you Google , you will find videos where enemies of the Church do use the fact that the word “lucifer” is included in the Exsultet to claim that Pope Francis is worshipping Lucifer , Satan . I could post such videos , but I think they are best left in the outer darkness .